The central bank slashed its official discount rate, a benchmark that affects what banks charge for loans, to 2.5 percent from 5 percent.

The banks are simultaneously raising interest rates and slashing the volume of credits.

By contrast, banks slashed the volume of new loans to those countries by $100 billion in 1997, about two-thirds of what they had loaned in 1996.

Last week China's central bank slashed interest rates by more than one percentage point.

Earlier this year, the bank slashed its dividend, said it would reduce its work force by 5,000 and reviewed all its operations.

The bank also slashed non-interest costs from 70% of income to 60% in 1990.

Mr. Goodwin earned the nickname Fred the Shred when his bank took over National Westminster Bank and slashed hundreds of jobs.

The bank also slashed its dividend in half.

Germany's central bank has slashed its forecast for 2012, warning that Europe's biggest economy might grow by somewhere between 0.5% and 1% next year.

The perverse Hoover fiscal policy and timid Fed monetary policy, which allowed the money supply to shrink by one-third, as banks slashed their lending to business, deepened the Depression.